Improvement in feed-boards for printing-presses



E. ALLEN. Feed-Board for Printing-Presses.

No. 133 002 1 Patented Nov.12,1872.

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AM. PHUTU-UTHUGRAFHIC CGJLY/OSEORNEIS PROCESS) UNITED STATES PATENT EDWIN ALLEN, OF NORWICH, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE ALLEN- MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

lMPROVEMENT IN FEED-BOARDS FOR PRlNTlNG-PRESSES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 133,002, dated November 1-2, 1872.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWIN ALLEN, of N orwich, in the county of New London and State of Connecticut, have invented an Attachment to the Feed Boa-rds of Printing-Presses, termed by me a Placer, of which the following is a specification:

In feeding printing-presses, especially when boys or other unpracticed persons are employed, great difficulty is experienced in feeding so as to obtain a uniform register. To obviate this, and to automatically efi'ect a perfect register by the press, is the object of my invention. It consists in the combination, with a feed-board having a step at or near the middle of its length, and thereby divided into two portions, which are in different planes, of

converging guides, which center the sheet fed on the board, and reciprocating pushers, which bring its back edge at right angles to the line of feed; the said pushers, every time they are drawn back, passing under or into the upper section or portion of the feed-board, to enable them to get behind the sheet next fed onto the forward section of the board, so as, in pushing it forward, to place it properly for its reception by the fingers of the cylinder. It is more especially intended for presses for printing show-cards, business cards, or envelopes, or sheets having a certain degree of stiffness, which enables them to be moved by a pushing action against their edges.

In the accompanying drawing, Figure 1 is plan or top view of a feed-board made according to my invention; Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section of the same; and Fig. 3 is an inverted plan of the same.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

A B is the feed-board, which is intended to be arranged in the usual manner relatively to the cylinder of the press, but which, instead of having an unbroken plane surface, is divided transversely by a step, 8. The portion B above occupies a higher plane than the portion A below. To the upper surface of the lower portion or section A of the board there are secured, by screws 8 s, laterally-adjustable guides G G, consisting of angle-plates, the upright portions or sides of which converge, as shown in Fig. 1, the narrower space between them, at their lower ends, being just sufficient to allow the sheets which are to be printed to pass freely between them. The attachment of the said guides to the feed-board is by means of slotted lugs g 9 provided on the guides, and through the slots of which the screws 8 8 pass, the slots permitting the lateral adjustment. C is a sliding plate, working in guides a a secured to the under side of the feed-board and carrying the pushers D D, which consist of light bars or strips of metal plate, on the forward ends of which are upward projections c c, which pass through slots it in the lower section A of the feed-board and project above the upper surface thereof, and also enter into grooves 19 10 provided for their passage in the under side of the upper section B. On the under sides of each of these pushers are two steady-pins, e e, which enter longitudinal slots ff in the slide C, and thereby prevent the lateral displacement of the pushers, which are secured to the slide by screws E E passing through them and through slots in the slide, the said screws being, with nuts N N, under the slide. This method of securing the pushers to the slide 0 enables them to be adjusted longitudinally in the slide, for the purpose of regulating the point to which they move in a forward direction, according to the size of the sheet, to adapt them for feeding sheets of different sizes. The slide 0 is operated back and forth by means of a crank, F, on a rotary shaft, H, and a connecting-rod, I, said shaft being driven from the driving-shaft of the press, or in other suitable manner. The slide, in its motion, carries the pushers D D, which Work within the slots 1' 13 in the section A of the feedboard and into the recesses p p in the under side of its section B.

The paper to be fed to the press is placed in a pile on-the upper section B of the feedboard, and then, sheet by sheet, is fed by hand over the step 8 onto the lower section A, while the pushers have their upwardly-proj ecting forward ends drawn back into the grooves 12 p in the upper section B. Falling between the guides G G, the sheet, as it is pushed forward by the pushers in their next forward movement from under the step 8, is at the same time centered between the converging guides D, and also squared by reason rrron of the faces of the pushers being both in a line at right angles with the feed-movement and parallel with the axis of the cylinder of the press. The sheet is thus properly placed for its reception by the fingers on the cylinder. As the pushers retract or move back they slide in the recesses in the upper section B, and so get behind the next sheet which is fed. onto the lower section A.

By means of the centering and squaring of the sheets fed to the cylinder their register is made exactly uniform.

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1. The combination, with the feed-board having upper and lower partsor sections A B, of 

